Effecting change

Today, we will talk about change and I will start with two quotations from two prominent and respected leaders:

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic” – Peter Drucker

“The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades” – John P. Kotter

It is now happening. The rate of change is speeding up, and it has come to the attention of many business owners and leaders that there is a need for radical transformation.

Tony Schwartz is an author and a journalist. He asked 100 CEOs attending a conference how many of them were currently involved in a significant business transformation. Nearly all of them raised their hands, which was no surprise.

Here in our country, my corporate clients have asked me to give talks and seminars on change management and the need to prepare their people to adapt to change. Tony Schwartz said that according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, 85 percent of companies have undertaken a transformation during the past decade, but the same research found that nearly 75 percent of those transformations fail to improve business performance, either short-term or long-term.

With all the effort, energy, interventions and activities plowed into the corporate transformation initiatives, why does it not work and why have they failed?

In my talks, I asked my participants why there is so much resistance to change.

The fundamental reasons include fear, insecurity, getting out of the comfort zone or locked behavior, and habits the people have had for years that they are not willing to alter. Of course, the heightened anxiety that everybody experiences in the face of change. “Would I succeed in this?”, “Would I be punished if I don’t?”

Most business transformations are built around policies, processes, technology and facilities. These are the job of the technical people. Others focus on behavior, training of new skills, asking for new deliverables. These are the challenges posed to HR people. But what most organizations typically overlook is the internal shift – what people think and feel—which has to occur in order to bring the
strategy to life.

“This is where resistance tends to arise – cognitively in the form of fixed beliefs, deeply held assumptions and blind spots; and emotionally, in the form of the fear and insecurity that change engenders. All of this rolls up into our mindset, which reflects how we see the world, what we believe and how that makes us feel. The result is something that the psychologists Lisa Lahey and Robert Kegan have termed “immunity to change,” says Tony Schwartz.

In other words, while leaders may be focusing too much on policies, procedures, systems, and codes, they are not investing in changing their people’s minds. Change that leaders want to see in their organizations depends on changes they should see in the individuals, and this begins with the most senior leaders and influencers. Any nuance, tip, verbal or visual clue that people see in their leader’s resistance to change will only fuel their own resistance and will make the change initiative extremely expensive and difficult.

Meanwhile, everyone in the company show superficial interests to the change initiatives. They may even memorize the “motivational quotes” and the corporate chants about change happening or the need for change. But the resistance is there and resistance that is passive, invisible and unconscious can derail even the best strategy.

There is a need to get the most senior leaders and influencers to spend time observing and understanding their own motivations, challenging their assumptions or pushing, convincing, perhaps even shoving them beyond their intellectual and emotional comfort zones. For these transformation initiatives to take place, there should first be the transformation of the individuals in the organization, which is another way of saying “you need to change their minds first before you can change their actions and attitudes.” The policies, processes and technological tools would then follow. Change should first take place inside the people, specifically the most senior leaders because of their authority and influence before it takes place inside the organization. When there are changes, these leaders model new behaviors and can communicate more authentically and convincingly. If these people see their leaders willing to get out of their comfort zones, excited and totally sold to the transformation initiatives, then their people would naturally follow their lead.

I started this material with quotes and I will end this with a quote.

“Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.”

Says James Belasco and Ralph Stayer.

So leaders, you’ve got to do your job.

(Join Francis Kong as he presents a whole-day learning event this Nov. 10 entitled: “Culture of Personal Excellence from 10:00AM to 5:00PM at the beautiful Santolan Town Plaza, Little Baguio, San Juan. Limited seats available. For further inquiries contact April at +63928-559-1798 or register online at www.successoptionsinc/cpe)